10 Awesome 2021 Films That Didn't Deserve To Flop
9. Stillwater
No genre of movies has struggled more at the pandemic box office than dramas marketed towards older audienes, as was frustratingly evidenced by the performance of the terrific Matt Damon-starring film Stillwater.
Despite the involvement of the reliable A-lister Damon, an intriguing ripped-from-the-headlines premise, a ton of Oscar buzz, and solid reviews, the film failed to recoup even its modest $20 million budget, grossing just $19.7 million worldwide.
Stillwater's colossal underperformance was largely blamed on its key demographics - that is, middle-aged audiences and above - not yet feeling comfortable returning to cinemas, and also deciding to wait until it hit VOD services a few weeks later instead.
On top of that, there's the fact that Amanda Knox, whose murder trial the film is inspired by, decried the film on Twitter the day before it was released, which surely didn't help at all.
Ultimately it's easy to see Stillwater doing strong numbers pre-COVID and being a major commercial success, but this just isn't the sort of film people - especially older viewers - are heading out to see at the cinema right now.